Verb: Redeem
by Kelar The Mage
Summary: Zalinka thinks a bit too much about Dante and Big. Big/Zalinka/Dante. Based off the play version of Get Smart.


Based off the play version of _Get Smart_ in a very loose manner. Pairing is Big/Zalinka/Dante.

I do not own _Get Smart_ in any of its various incarnations or adaptions.

Enjoy?

* * *

He was the kind of man I'd despised as a girl, when I was an idealistic child with belief in purity, love, and justice. Big wanted my body only, and he wanted my brains on his side. It wasn't hard to resist at first, but he was persistent. He flattered me in a way that Dante had never bothered.

Dante...I betrayed him. The realization sinks in numbly. I laughed at him in there, in the Fortune Cookie Club. My hands fall numbly to my side from where I've been bundling the Inthermo up in a coat. My eyes stare straight for a brief moment.

"Zalinka, are you okay?" Garth asks, nearing me.

I give him my iciest glare. _Harden your heart_, I order myself. I can't let this go...nor can I let go of the torch I've still got for Dante. "Get me another bag," I order him. "This floating garbage heap is dangerous to the Inthermo's sensitive wiring."

Garth's eyes widen. "Yes ma'am, of course ma'am." He darts away. The girls are preparing the speedboat, and Dante is left sitting there, under my guard. I raise my voice. We'd once discussed a code, in case of capture, and I remembered it perfectly. I'd just never had to try to pretend to be in charge.

"So Dante, planning on making a break?" I asked, my tone taunting. His eyes flashed. "You'd never make it out of the hotel. Our helpers have circuited it with traps." The flash in his eyes faded to confusion. "You couldn't beat us if you tried."

His face....I had never seen his face so shocked, horriffied, and pitying. He swallowed, and then leaped at me. I knew Dante well enough to know that he would make it real. I still wasn't prepared for the fist in my face, or for my sudden tumble to the ground. Still, the sight that greeted me before I screamed to keep my cover, encouraged me. Dante was already almost out of sight, the Inthermo clutched against his chest.

That was the man I loved, not the petulant whiner that had been greeting me for so many years now since we met. When Dante wasn't lost in his loathing of power and non-academics, he was a brave and powerful man. I was never going to be equal to that, but my own cruelty and pent-up passion had been enough to attract Mr. Big. I wish I'd never met him.

It began last year, when I visited Hong Kong. He was a late-night, drunken fling, one of many attempts to get over my boss. It was interesting, when I woke, to find breakfast being cooked for me. Big and I talked, and soon we corresponded regularly. He visited me, five months ago, and our affair cemented into alliance together. Lust, held down so long by my sober spell, reared itself for this man who was half my height, and half my worth. He seduced me though, with my own desperation. Big is clever, and malicious. He was too much for me then. I can only pray that he won't be too much for Dante.

The Wongs have given chase, leaving dear Zalinka alone at the dock, seemingly unconscious. I need to stay here though. Will they take me with them? I hope not. Knowing Dante, he will switch the controls.

The Hotel goes dark, and I watch with some small amusement through swelling eyes as screams break out. Scarce minutes after they have raced in, the Wongs and Garth come barrelling out. Big has not left the speedboat. I note the Inthermo cradled in Garth's arms with despair. I made a mistake allowing myself to fall for Big's games.

"Wait! What about the Professor?" one of the girls asks. I think it's Betsy, who has the highest voice. She's a tiny girl, blonde beneath her wig.

"Leave her." The voice is unmistakeably Big's. "She has served her purpose, and the lovesick bitch will pay the blame." A pause: "You can take a quick moment to break her further," he adds, sickeningly.

Garth must be smiling. He enjoys breaking people, and I feel all his happiness with the snap of my leg and the dagger now lodged in my shoulder.

They leave in their boat, and I lay there wrapped up in my own fury and self-loathing. The pain is driven back, but I also know that Dante is owed a hundred dollars, if he ever speaks to me again of course. He told me that just a fall could break one of my arms.

Speaking of Dante...I should leave before he gets back. None of them will forgive me. I've ruined my career, reputation, it really shouldn't matter if I ruin my life as well. A strangled sob escapes, but I bottle it up. The quickest way is to jump in the harbor, isn't it? Escape from everything.

With pain comes hallucinations. I know that, because there's no real possibility of Dante holding me and swearing, or of Max Smart saying that KAOS was crueler than he knew.

With these hallucinations, the pain is coming back, and soon everything drops away to a peaceful void.

"We still don't have the whole of her involvement, but I'm confident it was professional jealousy." I recognize that voice. It's Max Smart, and I wonder how long I've been out.

"Of what?" I mumble. My eyes feel stuck to my face, but I open them anyway. Ignoring the tears now slaking in my eyes, I lift my head.

"You're awake," he says flatly. "Why did you betray Dante?"

"You've already judged me," I tell him. "What point is there to talk? If he is unwilling to tell you what happened to me, he's less than I thought." My head droops again, and I sleep.

When I wake again, voices are shouting outside. The pretty young woman from the Fortune Cookie Club is sitting next to my bed. She smiles at me. "It's Dante and 86 arguing out there," she explains. "86 believes Dante's being taken in again."

"Hardly," I say, sour. She helps me to sit up. "You get Smart in here and I'll yell at him." I frown. "On second thought I won't. One brute's more than enough."

"Dante?" she asks, brow knotting in confusion.

"Garth," I cough. My chest hurts. "Though Dante did do some of this. He told you what occurred to allow him to grab the Inthermo?"

"Yes, he did," she says. "You're brave for that. I don't know that I'd be able to let myself be beaten by him, and then lay there."

I smile, though it hurts. "I'm not brave. Dante is." Another cough racks my chest. "Ugh. If I ever see Big again, someone needs to let me shoot him."

"He, ah, blew himself up on the speedboat."

I huff. "Well there goes my hoped-for revenge. Manipulation isn't something I take lightly." I turn my gaze to her again. "Go ahead and search my apartment, if you haven't already. You'll find that damned liar's letters." A sob escapes my voice, and I slump back down the pillows, but sleep does not come. "Just don't...don't tell _him_ about the journals."

She looks so perplexed, but I pretend to be asleep. It works well enough, and the shouting stops Dante growls in, the girl breezes out.

Sometime later, he speaks. "Well, you've led me quite a loop Zalinka. I'm still not sure what you intended. The CONTROL agents told me you and Big were...involved." Prim and proper as ever, I know Dante is giving a grimace. "99 told me she and Smart are off to retrieve things from your house. Were you really trying to help me, or taunt me?" A sigh. "Damnit, you're sleeping. You've slept two weeks."

That breaks it. "Two weeks?" I yelp, trying to sit up. It sets off another fit of coughing,

He grins. "I knew that would wake you up." He patiently waits through my coughing. "Well?"

"I'm not sure myself," I tell him. "Just..." My eyes drift to him. "I made my choices. Two broken limbs are payment for what I did to you." I shoo him. "Let me sleep."

He doesn't leave, and I'm not sure he knows what to say. I personally regret saying a word, and thus I'm extra-still to be convincing. Finally he leaves.

There is no trial for me when I am well enough. My writings were enough to convince Smart, 99, and their chief. They don't breathe a word to Dante, they tell me.

He shows up at my house one afternoon, two months after my injury and nearly bangs down the door. He drops a notebook on my dining room table, and I notice with distant eyes the name on the cover. Little liars, all of them.

I avoid his eyes, but I cant' get away from him, since I'm not yet steady on my feet and he has my arm.

"Did you mean what you wrote in there?" he demands. His voice is curiously flat.

There's no point in lying.

"Yes," I whisper.

He hugs me tightly, and then I feel lips brush mine. "I'd say we're even than," Dante whispers, oddly hoarse.

Who'd guess that doing something bad could land you with something so good. It's the thought that crosses my mind then, and the thought that crosses my mind the day he marries me.

I don't know, though, if Maxwell Smart is ever going to get his hair back to normal again. Diluted nitric acid worked wonders on his hair.

* * *

Hmm, a bit of a fairy-taleish ending there, but I couldn't see Zalinka dying either. I don't know how the original pilot ended, but I had to wonder how Dante could manage to get the Inthermo away from the Wongs, Zalinka, Garth, and Mr. Big if someone hadn't been helping him.

My school is performing this play, yes. I am playing Zalinka, yes. I am not blonde, though, but I will be by the time of the performances. Feel free to review if you like it.


End file.
